KingEdwardII

I think you made one of my points for me - inadvertantly. The A34 does indeed take a more or less direct route north/south, which is what you want for a route connecting the Midlands to the central South Coast. It's the railway that goes meandering all over the place via Basingstoke and Reading - and indeed, passenger trains typically reverse at Reading, slowing things down further. At least freight can take the Reading West curve to avoid that. An "ideal" railway route would have roughly followed the line of the long-departed Didcot, Newbury & Southampton - some of which is now buried underneath the A34. Of course, it was only ever a branch, but it was significantly upgraded during WWII to get war gear down to the departure points for D-Day, only to be abandoned once peace arrived. Ironically, it is only since that time that Southampton (in particular) has become a major freight port, along with a mushrooming of the population and commerce. True, but the sheer weight of traffic is putting pressure on some sections and really they should be upgraded to 3 lane at least in some sections - my pick for upgrade is the A34 from the M4 via Oxford to the M40. I'm not saying that at all - the mistakes over the DN&S were made years ago and no-one is going to spend money now to rebuild what has been destroyed. However, I consider that the right routing of north - south express services would be along that route - the fact that there are few folk living there is of no consequence to the long distance services - the East Coast and West Coast lines both have sections of similar size that serve nothing but sheep. The freight has little to do with Basingstoke and Reading and the passenger connections from Reading to the Midlands could have been made at Didcot or Oxford. My bigger point is how inconvenient and slow some of these non-London services are. As for the south getting any high speed lines, I suspect that hell will freeze over first. But I will ask why should that be - there is a substantial population in the south. A comprehensive plan for high speed should include this part of the country. But I realize full well that there is no comprehensive plan, no vision. They can't even manage London to Yorkshire, which is a no brainer to me. Yours, Mike.

The problem in the UK is that we never addressed the need for a proper set of trunk roads - all dual carriageway with graded junctions. Generally, the road network is a mess, with things done piecemeal and fitting together very poorly. Only quite late did we get routes like the A34 and A14 - which are essential and high volume. Meanwhile the A27 along the south coast is a monumental mess to this day. The route across the country from Cambridge to Oxford likewise. Interestingly, I suppose the equivalent railway routes are just as messy. Mainly, only the routes to/from London were built for speed and volume. The A34 equivalent is still a tortuous patchwork via Basingstoke, Reading and Oxford. The A27 equivalent from Southampton via Brighton, Eastbourne to Ashford is a complete dogs dinner. It's a real inditement that the quickest way from Southampton to Ashford is via London. (true of both rail & road) Yours, Mike.

Quite ironic to me, in that part of MKs success is based on its position on the road network. Those major warehouses don't exist on their own... Yours, Mike.

?!? I thought that they already put a bypass around the south side of Buckingham? I even think I drove on it last time I went up that way. It was single carriageway (which I thought at the time was lacking in foresight) - is an upgrade proposed? Yours, Mike.

The England cold record was set in 1982 at -26C. However, in Feb 2021, Braemar got to -23C, the lowest temp in 25 years. Dec 2010 was generally very cold with temps below -10C widely (coldest Dec in over a century), with one England location recording -20C. Yours, Mike.

Mid-continental locations, such as the Great Plains region of the USA and parts of Siberian Russia, are precisely like this - roast in summer and deep freeze in winter. e.g. Minneapolis +42C down to -37C - and those two extremes happened in one year - 1936. I experienced the cold end of Minneapolis on one winter business trip - thankfully there was very little wind. Not a place I'd choose to live. Yours, Mike.

You'd be blessed lucky to get any kind of compartment any longer - them's not the kind of trains that run any longer - all open plan, like so many offices have become. Yours, Mike.

Retirement is even better... ;-)

You can never have enough test cases... ...the bugs will certainly gather where the test cases don't go. Nasty little blighters. Yours, Mike.

I think I'm more worried about me deforming. And bits falling off... Definitely keep models & yourself out of the direct sunlight... Yours, Mike.

Someone mentioned not getting storms to end this heat. Well, some folk are getting them in spades. A glance at the weather radar (9.00am Tuesday) shows a very active system over Cornwall with a ton of lightning and quite heavy rain. Gradually moving north east, but its not clear how far it will get. The high heat level should pep up those storms as the day wears on, so it could get rather lively for some... We lived in Florida for a couple of years and those sort of storms would roll in almost every afternoon in the heat of July & August. Spectacular lightning shows and prodigious amounts of rain. Yours, Mike.

The section from Bedford to Cambridge should be a vital part of the development of the Cambridge area. Cambridge is a rapidly growing tech hub but its road system belongs in the medieval period, so there is a big need for alternative transport. This has already spawned two new stations - Cambridge North (science park area) and the proposed Cambridge South (Addenbrooks and biotech area). Meanwhile, Cambourne has mushroomed as a new town to the west and the whole area generally has a growing population and pressure for new housing. The favoured route of EWR is a southern one, but still connecting to Cambourne. I don't fully understand why this is the best option - I consider that a norther route would be better, although the obvious route there would be over the current guided busway. There may be political objections to that, although to my way of thinking, converting the guided busway to a railway to St Ives would make more sense in the long term. However, there may be other ideas for new communities along the line of the southern route, to the west of Cambridge. In which case, the nimbies may have a better case than we realise! Yours, Mike.

Bucket of water for each of them...

Large pointy stake & piles of garlic required.

Well, in Florida that makes sense even in the winter, with the sun blazing down. Fur coats are an invitation to self cooking. Yours, Mike.

A certain level of insanity helps... Reminds me of a January in Florida - we were all heading into the mall, dressed in T shirts and shorts, since it was about 75F and sunny. We were confronted by a lady dressed in a fur coat. I think she was from New York or similar cold place up north and since it was January, fur coats were mandatory. She must have been toasting.

Yup, we had those on our home in Florida. Without those, everyone inside was a mozzie's supper. Keeping the roaches out was a different problem... These damp (sub)tropical places have an awful lot of wildlife. Most of it seems either to want to eat you or else eat your food. Sometimes both. Yours, Mike.

I remember a similar experience when on holiday in Iceland. During the second week, the weather turned dry and warm and temperatures rose to the low 70s. When we got to Reykjavik, it seemed like the whole place was out sunbathing - with the long dark winters they get, I think I can understand this reaction of "catch it while you can" Yours, Mike.

I'll claim it's pretty normal for Australia. A land of droughts and floods, to some extent driven by the El Nino/La Nina system. When it's dry its really dry and when its wet, they get more rain than they know what to do with. My introduction to Oz was in one of the wet patches and we were warned to keep off the roads as cars were getting swept away. Yours, Mike.

Surely the simplest way to do that is what is already done - doorstep deliveries! Voila - no car journey required. Lots of people seem to have opted for this approach. Even me. Forcing people out of their cars will likely have similar effects. While walking & cycling may look great on a sunny summer Saturday, they ain't so appealing on a wet winter Wednesday. Make it hard for me to get to the shops? OK, I'll buy online then. Yours, Mike.

You need to use the command line to maintain the Pi. Software & security updates & all that. Not for running trains, I agree. Yours, Mike.

Well, really you do - it's just that it is possible for some other computer or device to provide the monitor - as in your suggestion "another computer can login to the Pi". It is true to say that you don't need a monitor attached to the Pi directly and that you can operate your railway through the Pi using some other device as the user interface. But there will be a monitor somewhere running a command line terminal at least that drives commands to the Pi. This may sound like splitting hairs, but I'm concerned not to give the OP the idea that there is no monitor whatever. Going in the opposite direction, you can attach a very fancy monitor to the Pi - I have a large touchscreen on mine with a full graphical interface that I use to control my railway. The flexibility of the Pi is one of its big plus points. Yours, Mike.

I can thoroughly recommend these beauties from Maun: https://www.maunindustries.com/pliers-tools/parallel-pliers/ They also do other items such as clamps. In general, I think you need to look at stuff made for Jewellers, like the site that @melmerby picked out on the previous message. I've used Proops Brothers in the past: https://www.proopsbrothers.com/workholding-27-c.asp Yours, Mike.

That was never said - what was addressed are the real practical problems with EVs. My own view is that PHEVs are the right solution for today and the forseeable future. Local journeys on electric power, longer journeys using petrol/diesel for much of the distance. If and when the issues with EVs are addressed, then I'm sure we shall all be happy to make the transition. Until then, an EV will not be on my agenda, since I have to make 300+ mile journeys reasonably regularly due to the distribution of our friends and relatives. Yours, Mike

That's certainly true. Use of railways by commuters varies around the country - London is the place with a really dominant population of folk who commute by rail. There, the railways even helped create the very suburbs that today generate the commuter traffic. I think Birmingham is in second place for commuting by train, but the overall percentage of commutes by rail compared with road is much lower than London. Elsewhere, the railways are used by different kinds of travellers. Some are business users who are not commuters - I think that a fair proportion of first class travellers are like this, although I myself always travelled in second class for these journeys due to company policy. I've travelled in first class when paying myself! Many more folk are travelling for their own reasons, be it leisure, shopping, visiting relatives, etc. The busiest trains on our local line between Southampton and Bristol are on the weekend, except for that section from Bradford on Avon to Bristol where the Bristol commuters pack the early morning trains on weekdays. Yours, Mike.